In my instructions on the Philips headphones for use with a tv (it is a great hearing aid) there are specific instructions to use short shank Philips rechargeable batteries AAA. I cannot find them anywhere. Any ideas?
Philip Tarbuck

12-01-2011, 03:36 PM

Philips - Gary

Hi Tarbuck,

Can you provide the model number of the headphones? It may be that these are available from the call centre.

Kind regards,

Gary

12-05-2011, 01:03 PM

Spike

The manual might advise to buy a specific brand of battery so as to lead to follow-on sales, but many devices that accept a AAA battery will accept any brand. (Non-rechargeable AAA delivers 1.5v, while NiMH rechargeables deliver 1.2v, so beware. Also, I have devices that say they "support" rechargeables, and they do, but they quickly report "battery low" based on the different voltage.)

If these headphones permit substitution, then you ought to report to Tarbuck the required technology ("rechargeable" or "NiMH" or "any") rather than a specific brand name that might not be available so readily in his country.

A propos of nothing, devices that use off-the-shelf batteries are far better than custom or nonremovable batteries, as the battery will wear out, and will probably be the first thing to wear out. I'd like it if everything used AA, as they store much more power (mAh) than AAA and don't really weigh down even wearable gear like a headphone.

12-05-2011, 01:10 PM

Spike

In fact, I can give Tarbuck more specific advice (disclaiming responsibility for the destruction of his property!): If a store-bought AAA lists the same voltage as the AAA shipped with the unit, it is a substitute. The only other things that might vary is how much power it can store in one charge (mAh). Also how fast it can deliver it (mA or mW), but for electronics like headphones, that will almost certainly not be an issue. (It used to be for flash cameras.)

12-05-2011, 01:36 PM

Philips - Andrea

Hi Spike and Tarbuck,

I agree that batteries are non specific items (providing they are not rechargeables) thus a majority of our spec sheets will simply indicate the specification of the battery (eg: NiMH) and do not recommend the brand. For older models, we did indeed used to recommend Philips branded batteries for product continuity.

@Tarbuck- if you have wireless headphones, as Gary has previously mentioned replacement batteries may be available via the call centre (UK: 0800 331 6015) however if you could provide the model number, I can confirm this for you.

@Spike, again you raise some great points with regards to the use of AA and AAA batteries and negatives/positives for using them. I will feed this back to the teams for future consideration. Thanks!